Building AI Skills with Daily Practice

Like many librarians, I’m still trying to come to grips with using AI.  While I have my concerns that AI will have a negative impact on learning (and perhaps humanity in general), its presence can’t be ignored, so I have been experimenting with it consistently.  To keep AI on my mind, I always have a tab for Co-Pilot open on my PC.  I regularly pepper it with questions ranging from the simple (What did Voltaire say about defining terms and debate?), to the more serious (What caused the Dancing Plague in the 16^th century?), to the professionally useful (create some CSS code that will make all links on my website underlined).  Each little query helps me understand AI a bit more and get a better idea of how to use it.  I can also see its limitations.  A question about citing a website led to an incorrect answer.  Requests to create an image of the United States Constitution led to some hilarious misspellings (AI struggles to create images with proper spelling).  I can also see its biases based on its responses.  For example, in one class, I asked AI to respond with the benefits and downsides of AI, only to be given a list of the benefits of AI with no downsides.  It was a great example of bias for the students to see.

Like anything else, practice does make perfect.  So, if you want to improve your use of AI, I highly suggest daily use, from the most mundane tasks all the way to more complex uses that may save you time on some project in your work.  Little by little, you’ll learn how to properly use AI.